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Denbigh students awarded 'best product' and 'best overall company' for their enterprising skills

Winners of "Pods of the Future" competition impress judges with their innovation

During the autumn term 6 Year 12 students attended the Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) Innovation Centre based in Milton Keynes to hear all about the development of transport. Their visit entailed an open day introducing the students to the work carried out by TSC. Here they took a look into the future identifying potential solutions to transport problems with one idea being the use of driverless pods. The students also attended a presentation on human interaction with design construction. It was here that they were set the "Pods of the Future" challenge. The competition was open to all Year 12 students in Milton Keynes and they were asked to come up with designs of how self-driving vehicles might look in the year 2025. Students were given the option of working alone or within pairs. They were tasked with submitting their entry as one A3 sheet showing their single design idea, accompanied by one A4 sheet containing a written explanation of the concept.

After an initial look at the entries the judges of the competition invited 10 finalists to talk about their designs to a panel of judges on the evening of Tuesday 16th December. The panel included members of the TSC's Automated Transport Systems (ATS) business unit who are currently working on the real-life self-driving pods that are due to be trialled in Milton Keynes. Zoe Canham with her individual entry and Denzel Onyango and Jamie Williams with their joint proposal were delighted to be selected as finalists. The panel of judges was impressed with the variety of designs which included a cylindrical pod with wheels that rotate around a gyroscope-controlled static centre-frame, a vehicle with hydraulic wheel-struts that would allow it to clear small obstacles and a playful "Moo-Kar" with black solar panels shaped to resemble cow hide (very fitting with Milton Keynes' famous concrete cows). Mr Neil Fulton, ATS Programme Director said; "It was clear that a lot of effort went into the designs and that there was a really good understanding of the brief. Hopefully by 2025 we'll have made the technological advances to ensure that some of the features presented tonight can really be implemented in the pods of the future."

At the end of the judging event Denzel Onyango and Jamie Williams were thrilled to be announced the winners of the competition. Jamie said; "It definitely helped working as a pair on this project. It meant we could bounce a lot of ideas off each other, including many that we threw out early on. We really wanted to come up with something that was different and didn't just feel like any other form of public transport that 20 other people have sat in before you." Their winning entry was an aerodynamic, high-tech design concept that would allow passengers to personalise the vehicle's colour, light settings and entertainment systems via their smart phone. The two-person pod would also run on a special track made up of solar panels that could power the vehicles and be used to display informational graphics.

Following their success Denzel and Jamie have been given the opportunity to join the ATS team for a week-long work experience placement to bring some of their future visions to bear on the current versions of driverless technology. Well done to the Denbigh students for their excellent work on the challenge brief which was undertaken alongside their regular study work. Congratulations to Denzel and Jamie for winning the competition and thank you to Transport Systems Catapult for helping the students to effectively explore intelligent mobility.

Football Mash Up starting next Thursday, and every Thursday from 3-4pm on the astroturf. Sessions are run by FA Qualified Coaches. Any football kit OK. All welcome.

It was great to see everyone back after the Christmas break. We discussed the information we had been given by Karen Fleming at the last meeting and made some decisions about the library project we are working on. We are going to train the school council at Glastonbury Thorn school on Wednesday, which we are really looking forward to.

The Latest edition of Denbigh Today is now available online

School Dates for the New Year

Monday 5th Jan - Inset Day, School Closed to Students
Tuesday 6th Jan - All Students return to School

Youth Parliament Elections

3 Denbigh students hope to be elected as Youth MP for Milton Keynes. Congratulations to Gayatri Vijapurkar (Y10), Ellie Flint (Y11) and Jacob Weinbren (Y11) who were selected to run as Youth MPs for Milton Keynes The Youth Parliament is run by young people and provides opportunities for 11-18 year-olds to use their voice in creative ways to bring about social change. Each area in the UK is invited to elect a Youth Parliament member. See http://www.ukyouthparliament.org.uk/ for more about the YP. In February schools across Milton Keynes will be electing the Youth MP for the city. Good luck to our 3 candidates, and we look forward to hearing more from them in the New Year.

The Denbigh Association meeting arranged for January 5th has been cancelled.

On Wednesday 3rd December Denbigh School hosted the Red Bull Formula One Car; the RB6 – Sebastian Vettel's World Championship Winning car from the 2010 campaign.

Denbigh Teaching School Alliance offers a wide range of training and professional development programmes for teachers and other educational professionals across Milton Keynes and the surrounding area.

School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) allows graduates to train as teachers in local schools. Denbigh Teaching School in partnership with St Paul's Catholic School and more than 15 partner schools from Milton Keynes and the surrounding area will be training teachers in 2015/16.

The Enigma Maths Hub is a partnership lead by the Denbigh Teaching School Alliance including Shenley Brook End School, and has already set up a close working relationship with its strategic partners, Two Mile Ash School, Pilgrim Teaching School Alliance, Chiltern Teaching School Alliance, Oakgrove Teaching School Consortium and the Open University.